Archers thread #181: Panto Week's behind you! Was that the nadir? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd enjoy playing badminton with Derek Fletcher, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Will it be onwards and upwards for TA now, or do we fear even more of these special weeks (Martin and a Christmas Carol, Scam Week, Panto Week) and sudden reinventions of long-established characters (Neil)? I for one have had enough of all that. I want a quiet period of change counting in the village shop, farming talk with suitable sound effects and village gossip over coffee at Terum or a pint in The Bull. Slowly developing storylines featuring the full cast, not a subset for a few weeks with no mention of the others, and all behaving in character. Not holding my breath we'll get any of that, though!

Over to you.

Yes a bit of being kicked you're already down situation for Helen there, having to be bailed out by her rival cheese maker.

Disgraceful that they haven't got professional cleaners in for the diary. How have Clarrie and Susan not walked out yet?

Was listening to the podcast tonight and Sybil Ruscoe was talking about her sewage plotline and that it will be affecting Ambridge for a long time.

X post oh yes her!

God - really hope it affecting Ambridge for a long time doesn't mean daily Helen cheese whining. That refusing to give Celia Sparrow the prize and being nasty to Ian about it was tedious.

I'm also annoyed that the Gill house sitting looks, sadly predictably, as if it is going to turn into comedy capers and japes. There's no need. Everyone in Ambridge wants to know what the house is like and so do we.

Neither Joy nor Mick are idiots (apart from the inexplicable and implausible failure to get the insurers to do what insurers are meant to do- or is that happening when they're at Home Farm?)

All that's needed is for them to be the eyes for us and the villagers.

It’s so, so disappointing that our return to the Home Farm house (after all this time!) is via those two unbearably tedious characters. I can just about stand Joy on her own - though the best thing about her is the mystery of how and why she came to Ambridge. I do not need Mick in my audio life.

(Fist bump to other ancient parent possessors …)

Sorry some of you re having a hard time, I know what that is like.
I too don't understand why Mucky and Joyless are centre stage at the moment, no-one cares about them or the silly Rohelle story (notice Joy is lying about her again.)
Well done to you who said the Gills must be Asian, Mucky mentioned their names last night.
Helen is really getting it at the moment Ha Ha. She is like a Beadle in a workhouse the way she is treating Susan and Carrie. They should both down tools and walk out until everything is back to it's hygienic best.

I want to know if the stunningly white kitchen was what Jenny had

Didn’t she have ‘an Albion kitchen’ installed.? They’ve probably misread the post-it note and got the notion it’s albino.

Florence the bearded dragon won't like the cold!

Help me out here. How is the milk ok for Celia Sparrow to use in her cheese when it’s too contaminated to be used by Helen in BB? What am I missing?

I enjoyed being shown around HF and being shocked by the new sci-fi interior.

Helen can't use the Bridge Farm milk as the dairy is out of action. It won't keep till the amateurs have finished faffing about 'cleaning' the dairy and its equipment. There won't be bulk storage for more than 24-36 hours of milk production either.

Florence the bearded dragon will indeed be in a heated tank, which this species needs in order to survive in captivity, so unless the Gills have switched off all the power and left her to freeze to death without a second thought, yet again we have a poorly-researched and nonsensical SL.

I’ve just caught up on the last couple of days - why are they still pouring milk down the drains?!! How does the Agricultural Story Advisor seem blissfully unaware that this isn’t allowed?

Why is everyone stumbling around with buckets and mops? Where are the professional cleaners, insurers, loss adjusters, public health officials, journalists? It’s beyond ridiculous.

I suppose the only positive is that we now definitely know Jenny’s kitchen was ripped out (though I’m another who has a persistent memory of hearing somebody saw it in a skip).

Oh, no, actually there’s another positive. Helen will be boiling with rage at having to go cap in hand to Celia Sparrow. Excellent.

Can someone patiently explain to me what the deal is with milk and drains?

I am sure she didn’t have an induction hob. I am sure she did @WitcheryDivine because I remember her having to get new pans and an explanation (by Alice I think) as to why this was necessary. Shortly afterwards I moved into a new apartment which had an induction hob (easy enough to work out how to use!) and immediately understood why some of my pans were not compatible andI remember DH finding it hilarious that I knew this because of Jennifer’s kitchen.

Oh that’s so funny @LillianGish I stand corrected 😁

Keri is writing this week; he must KNOW we all want to know about the kitchen (I am still cross that Mick and Joy are the ones we'll have to listen to).

Here are the boring milk disposal regs they need to follow:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-dispose-of-milk-from-your-farm-or-dairy#how-to-dispose-of-milk-at-the-farm-where-it-was-produced

Pretty sure that if Jenny had got an ultra-computerised kitchen, we would have heard about it.

Isn't the issue with working it the lack of a remote control thing which was supposed to be left for Mick and Joy?

I'm waiting for the SL where the insurance company refuses to cough up for the extra week's lack of production, due to the fact that Helen didn't mitigate loss by using the industrial cleaners that the insurance company would have been happy to pay for.

Agree that there will be longterm complications because of the choice not to use professional cleaning.

To start with I wondered if the llama had been attacked by Laurence, but then realised it was just whatever the equivalent of a meet-cute is for Alistair and Khalil. No doubt he will cement his position as a wonder-apprentice at the vets before long.

I’d like some more characters so would have been happy to meet the Gills but now realise sadly that it was Home Farm which was rumoured to be coming back into the mix, rather than it’s inhabitants.

Lol at Laurence getting into a fight with a llama.

I think the tablet thing at Home Farm controls the heating and lighting not the electric so Florence should be ok.

I hope neither Carrie nor Susan become ill as a result of all the filthy work they’ve been forced into.

Helen can't use the Bridge Farm milk as the dairy is out of action. It won't keep till the amateurs have finished faffing about 'cleaning' the dairy and its equipment

I see- that’s helpful but I still cannot believe Celia would want milk from a contaminated farm anywhere near her production line. There may be absolutely nothing wrong with it but she surely wouldn’t want to take the reputational risk?!?

but I still cannot believe Celia would want milk from a contaminated farm anywhere near her production line. There may be absolutely nothing wrong with it but she surely wouldn’t want to take the reputational risk?!?

You know that saying "there's so many plot holes you could strain vegetables through them"

Well you can't here as there's so many plot holes your vegetables would fall straight through into the sink.

I am reeling from the news that the Gills are Asian. I know a family of Gills who are Lytham born and bred so it never crossed my tiny mind. A fair amount of palaver has ensued from the arrival of the Maliks so I’m at a loss to understand why the purchase of Home Farm by a clearly stonking rich Asian couple merited not a whisper.

And no way would JennyDarling have had a whiter than white kitchen.

How long ago did they buy home farm? Find it hard to believe the kitchen would still be there after that time anyway

will be amazing if usha and the gills have managed many years with not a hint of the R word yet the maliks move in and it becomes rampant

Usha was the victim of racist attacks by a gang, of which Roy the racist was a member before he changed his ways. It was a huge storyline, I was surprised that they would do it again with the Maliks

The kitchen must have been put in about 10 years ago perhaps? In my mind I can't think Jenny would have had a blindingly white gloss kitchen, I imagined she would have had the highest quality bespoke painted wood shaker doors kitchen, possibly in a pale F&B colour.